Jan. 26, 2005
Elvia Thompson
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-1696)
RELEASE: 05-027
NASA SOFTWARE TOOL HELPS PREVENT AIR TRAFFIC BOTTLENECKS
No one is happy with long lines and delays at our nation's airports.
In response to the growing need to improve the National Airspace
System, NASA is developing tools to ensure future air travel will be
safe and efficient.
NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the MITRE Corp.,
McLean, Va., successfully conducted tests of the Multi-center Traffic
Management Advisor (McTMA) at air traffic facilities responsible for
the northeastern United States. Initial results indicate the
software's scheduling capabilities helped air traffic managers
prevent bottlenecks.
At the heart of McTMA is a powerful "trajectory synthesis" engine
capable of converting radar data, flight plans and weather
information into accurate forecasts of air traffic congestion. McTMA
uses these forecasts and input from air traffic personnel to generate
a specific advisory, typically a small delay, for each aircraft
predicted to encounter congestion.
"McTMA is an advanced air traffic management system that makes
possible a fundamental shift in air traffic control form from
distance-based to time-based metering of aircraft," said Tom Edwards,
deputy director of the Aeronautics Directorate at NASA's Ames
Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "Time-based metering can
reduce airborne delays and improve coordination and planning between
adjacent air traffic control facilities," he added.
Tests were conducted with managers at the Air Route Traffic Control
Centers in New York, Washington, Boston and Cleveland; the
Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control and the National Air
Traffic Control System Command Center in Herndon, Va.,
The successful tests validated the McTMA "distributed scheduling
architecture," and helped air traffic managers prevent bottlenecks at
the Philadelphia International Airport.
"The evaluation successfully demonstrated the advantages of the McTMA
departure metering capability over current techniques," said Tom
Davis, principal investigator for McTMA, and chief of the Terminal
Area Air Traffic Management Research Branch at Ames. "During several
periods at Philadelphia, when airborne holding is routinely
encountered, no such holding was observed when McTMA was in use,"
Davis added.
Frequently, adjustments of just a few minutes at the point of origin
can alleviate airborne traffic jams at the destination. The result is
safer and more efficient operations for airlines and the flying
public as the system produces a steady but manageable flow of air
traffic.
"Future tests will seek to gradually expand the McTMA operational
envelope to demonstrate multi-center, time-based metering of
departures, arrivals and en route flows to multiple destinations,"
Davis said.
Earlier versions of the system are used to schedule arriving aircraft
at Dallas-Ft. Worth, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Denver, Houston, Miami
and Atlanta airports. As testing progresses, McTMA's time-based
metering may be applied to departures, arrivals and en route aircraft
across broader airspace regions and air traffic corridors.
Testing of the newer McTMA system is scheduled to resume in February
2005 at the same facilities. If fully successful, NASA and the FAA
will work together to bring the technology into future operations to
benefit air travelers.
The program is managed by the Airspace Systems Division of NASA's
Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. The software was developed
at Ames.
For information about the McTMA system and other air traffic
management decision support tools, visit:
http://www.ctas.arc.nasa.gov/project_description/mctma.html
For information about NASA aeronautics research, visit:
http://aeronautics.nasa.gov/
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